Saturday, December 20, 2014

According to Commissioner McVoy, it is "un-American" to leave a meeting
and choose NOT TO LISTEN to someone at the podium in a city meeting.
Everyone will be very interested to discover that leaving a meeting and
NOT LISTENING to someone is not new in Lake Worth. Look what I discovered here:

What
I discovered is from the minutes of the Lake Worth City Commission
meeting on October 4, 2011. By McVoy's standards something very
un-American occurred at this meeting.

So,
you see, what Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Maxwell, and Commissioners
Szerdi and Amoroso did last December 2nd during Preston Smith's atheist
'invocation' actually has precedent.

Former commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill left the meeting on October 4, 2011, to NOT LISTEN to Suzanne Squire (7:32 to 7:35). And then former mayor Rachel Waterman left the meeting to NOT LISTEN to Mary Lindsey (7:35 to 7:37).

Will McVoy offer up an apology to Mayor Pam Triolo and the others. Of course not.

The
Esther B. O'Keeffe Charitable Foundation has become the largest local
philanthropic donor to Scripps Florida, Scripps officials said.

The
foundation has given more than $3 million in gifts and pledges to
advance research that the Scripps Research Institute is doing on brain
disorders from autism to Alzheimer’s to bipolar disease and other
conditions, said Irv Geffen, director of Major Gifts & Planned
Giving at Scripps.

[and later in article...]

“These
disorders have an enormous impact on our economy and, of course, on any
individual who suffers, as well as the family structure,” said Dr. Ron
Davis, founding chairman of Scripps Florida’s Department of
Neuroscience. “I am often asked when we will have a cure, or effective
preventatives or therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, or other major brain
disorders. We are not yet there, but what I am absolutely certain of is
that we will never get there without research.”

On Tuesday, December 2nd, atheist Preston Smith delivered his "invocation" before the Lake Worth City Commission. You can read about that
and research done on invocations (or the lack of ) in other
municipalities in Palm Beach County. For instance, Greenacres does not
have an invocation while others do.

Just
when you thought the 'invocation' kerfuffle was settling down this
week's (12/18/2014) Lake Worth Herald editorial came out swinging and
pulling no punches. Good for them. I strongly encourage all my readers
to read this editorial. If you don't get the Lake Worth Herald delivered
you can subscribe at LWHerald.com or pick up a copy at a newsstand (for instance, the newsstand immediately west of our downtown Starbucks).

Here are three excerpts from the Lake Worth Herald editorial:

Being
elected to any political office does not eliminate one's right to free
speech. Neither does it preclude one's right to listen. Everybody is on a
level playing field with those rights.

Choosing to not listen to someone exercising their right to free
speech, for any reason, is not "un-American" as Commissioner Christopher
McVoy would say. This was once again McVoy speaking just to promote
"his" agenda and take "cheap shots" at his colleagues on the dais.

McVoy never called his friend, former commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill
un-American when she left the room every time Lake Worth resident,
Suzanne Squire's turn to speak came around. This was just another
example of McVoy's tactics to be a roadblock to progress in Lake Worth.
It was completely disrespectful for him to call his colleagues actions
"un-American."

The Mayor and
Commissioners who left the dais when Preston Smith stood to give an
"invocation" from an atheist's view, did so with a right to listen or
not, for ANY reason.

[later in the editorial...]

Lake
Worth has suffered enough of McVoy's diversionary tactics and it is
time for him to depart his position on the dais. He has brought nothing
constructive to the table since he was first elected, and has only
served to interfere with the progress Lake Worth needs to make in order
to remain a viable institution. The likes of McVoy and company only lead
to the degradation of the quality of life in Lake Worth.

[and...]

How
many more times do we need to hear him [McVoy] talk about "sea level
rise" for ten minutes when the discussion is whether to approve a
"proximity waiver" or any other topic before the commission.

Also
in the editorial there are questions as to why Preston Smith did his
'invocation' in Lake Worth as opposed to another municipality and
speculation as to who may have offered that invitation. I also have my
suspicions.

Lastly, the folks at the Lake Worth Herald offer this to the City of Lake Worth:

SEASONS GREETINGS!

Friday, December 19, 2014

From an email from the Town of Palm Beach:In
observance of the Christmas and New Year holidays, all Town offices and
the Recreation Center will be closed on December 24th, December 25th,
December 31st and January 1st. Certain Town recreational facilities
will be open per the hours below and the beaches will have lifeguards on
duty from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

December 24th and December 25th:The Par 3 Golf Course will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (closes at 12:00 p.m. on December 25th)Phipps Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Seaview Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.Town Docks will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (Closed on December 25th).December 31st and January 1st:The Par 3 Golf Course will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.Phipps Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Seaview Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.Town Docks will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

A woman in Boca Raton stole somebody's inflatable
Santa and Santa's 7 reindeer too. The Boca PD needs your help finding
what lawn Santa and his reindeer came from. Read the entire story here from Kate Jacobson at the Sun Sentinel.

Police in Boca Raton saw a blue Ford Focus driving through a neighborhood early Wednesday
with cords and a tent stake hanging out of the trunk. The driver,
Tessa, 37, made a traffic violation and officers pulled her over,
according to a post on the Boca PD Facebook page.

That's good news. I hear that Blitzen and Dancer both have chronic medical conditions, one is diabetic and the other has early signs of dementia. We can rest easy now that the culprit has been apprehended. Santa is resting comfortable in a hyperbaric chamber. Re-inflation pressures have been restored.

Greenpeace really stepped into the public relations nightmare with this
stunt. This is on top of their other recent PR dilemma when one of their
executive directors was found to be flying 250 miles to work. Not exactly the kind of carbon footprint a high level exec at Greenpeace wants to claim for himself.

Greenpeace May Have Permanently Damaged An Ancient, Sacred Site. Now What?

Here is an excerpt from the article in ClimateProgress:

This
[damaging a Peruvian cultural site] is the dispute that has preoccupied
climate and environmental advocates since it was discovered last week
that Greenpeace had trespassed on to the world-renowned Nazca Lines to
lay a bright yellow banner urging a switch to renewable energy. The
combination of banner-plus-Peruvian World Heritage site was meant to
draw attention to the U.N. climate talks being held in nearby Lima. But
the stunt backfired, and Peruvian officials say the activists’
footprints permanently damaged the area surrounding the ancient
hummingbird geoglyph.

Along with riling the Peruvian government
(which has pledged to file criminal charges against the offending
activists) and damaging the site, the situation has drawn a rift between
environmentalists.

Certainly, what our EarthFirst!ers did on November 7th wasn't nearly as bad as Greenpeace, but it still was a PR disaster for EF!. Here is the story about the "battery in the lake".
There are about a thousand ways to disable a vehicle. Why they chose to
remove the battery and throw the battery into the lake is anyone's
guess. The Palm Beach Post actually posted a picture of this, courtesy
of the Palm Beach Gardens police department. Oooops.

This is all about controlling the message. It will take a very long time for Greenpeace to recover from this ill-advised stunt done on an international stage.

Click here for
a great story about a new Habitat for Humanity/CRA house dedication
here in Lake Worth, this one in Royal Poinciana. There have been 41 such
houses built in Lake Worth and 184 in the county.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Everything was Frozen at the City’s Tree Lighting event on Friday
evening, December 12. Andy Amoroso, Lake Worth City Commissioner, and
Cindy Ansell, Children’s Librarian at Lake Worth Library, teamed
up to help the children make their own Olaf the snowman or Sven the
reindeer to take home.

While the children
put on stickers and pasted antlers, parents entered their names in the
raffle to win baskets full of special treats. The winners were: Karina
Cortez, age 5, and Juan Sanchez
(in photo), age 10, who live in Lake Worth. Both winners have
siblings who were as excited as the winners were when they picked up the
baskets at the Library.

Somebody
at Channel 5 (WPTV) did their research and discovered that Crest Drive
is just a stone's throw from Lake Worth, however not in the city limits of
the City of Lake Worth. Thank you folks at Channel 5. Crest Drive is
located in suburban Lake Worth, of course.

From the Sun Sentinel, a story about panhandling from road medians. County lawyers are drafting a proposed law now. From the article by Andy Reid:

In a new bid to curb roadside panhandling, Palm Beach County may evict everyone collecting money from road medians.

County
commissioners through the years have shied away from outlawing
panhandling at busy intersections because of concerns that they would
also have to oust community fundraisers or risk a court challenge.But on Tuesday,
the commission agreed to consider a new proposal to keep everyone –
from those holding a "Will work for food sign" to firefighters asking
drivers to fill a boot with money for charity – from collecting money
from just the medians of county roads.That would still allow people to ask for money while standing on sidewalks or elsewhere at intersections.

Jane Musgrave of the Post has this story about Fane Lozman's lawsuit against the city of Riviera Beach. Yesterday, Jane Musgrave wrote this about the Lozman trial, just as it was going to the jury. From the article:

Since
2006, Lozman attended 121 council meetings and spoke 296 times, Bedard
[attorney Ben Bedard] told jurors. “Does that sound like someone whose
First Amendment rights are being impeded?” he asked.The trial is
unusual for many reasons. For starters, Lozman, a former Marine who
made millions by inventing a financial tracking software program, is
representing himself. Further, it isn’t often someone sues a city for
First Amendment violations much less is afforded a month-long trial.To
illustrate the complex issues swirling around the case, it took U.S.
District Judge Daniel Hurley nearly three hours to explain the legal
aspects of the case to the jury of six men and two women — a process
that usually takes about 45 minutes. After the lengthy jury instructions
consumed most of the afternoon, jurors elected to return today [12/16]
to begin deliberations.

The
lawsuit by Mr. Lozman is about the First Amendment and free speech in a
city government setting. For those of you unfamiliar with city
commission meetings there are two types of public comment. The first is
near the beginning of the meeting where the public gets to comment on
anything not on the meetings agenda that day. And then there is comment
opportunity after each item on the agenda. In Lake Worth for instance,
when you enter the commission chambers you'll find these blue cards:

In the excerpt above Jane Musgrave wrote that Mr. Lozman "attended 121 council meetings and spoke 296 times."

I
have been to a Riviera Beach City Commission meeting representing a client on a zoning matter many years ago, but have
never witnessed Mr. Lozman commenting at their meetings. I have however
had Mr. Lozman as a guest on my podcast High Noon in Lake Worth.
During our talk, Mr. Lozman came across as reasonable and highly
intelligent, although some in Riviera Beach would disagree with my
assessment.

The reason I note the unusually
high number of public comments by Mr. Lozman is that we had our own issue
with "free speech" here in Lake Worth. In Lake Worth we have our own
gregarious gadfly, Mr. Timm. I don't have a count of Mr. Timm's public comments at
Lake Worth city commission meetings but suspect Mr. Timm may have Mr.
Lozman beat in the public comment count. He offers some observations that are worthwhile, others maybe not as much, but he still has the right to his two minutes on any agenda item on which he wishes to speak.

There are some in Lake Worth who believe Mr. Timm's First Amendment rights were violated. Watch Mr. Timm here and I'll explain why this is not the case at all.

After
watching the video please refer back to the comment card above with the
rules for public comment. One such rule is this: "The result of
inappropriate outbursts or interruptions will be immediate removal from
the meeting escorted by a Police Officer."

Mr.
Timm was commenting on an agenda item. Mayor Pam Triolo explicitly
explained that only comments about the voting experience that day, August 26th, would be permitted. The result of the vote was not the agenda. The mayor made that very clear at the outset of the agenda item.

My
point here is this, the First Amendment and the right of Free Speech is
not all-encompassing. There are guidelines on free speech. From Jane
Musgrave's article she quotes the Riviera Beach attorney Ben Bedard:

“He
[Fane Lozman] wants to fight. He wants to debate. He wants to create a
disturbance,” Bedard said, offering commentary to a video that showed
one heated exchange between Lozman and council members. “It’s his
conduct that’s causing the issue, not the viewpoint he’s expressing.”

Tonight at 6:00 the Planning & Zoning board is having a Special Meeting.
The meeting is held at city hall (7 North Dixie Highway); you can go in person if you want or
watch the meeting online. One of the items under discussion is the plan
for that large empty lot southeast of our downtown Publix. On the link
above, starting on page 11, is the proposal to build 23 townhomes
called the Lucenté. Here from the city's pdf is an image of the proposed
buildings:

Great location. The Great Recession seems to be over and we are starting to see voids filled and our property tax value increase.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! The Holiday Parade Award Winners have been
Announced -- Just in from Juan Ruiz, Leisure Services Director for the
City of Lake Worth:

"Just wanted
to say 'Thank YOU' to all of the participants in this year’s parade, it
was the biggest and best parade in the 49 year history! I’ve gotten
nothing but positive feedback and everyone’s looking forward to next
year’s 50th Anniversary parade. Next year will be bigger and better as
we further develop the program."

"Attached are the results for the different categories as judged by the
parade judges. The trophies can be picked up at the Osborne Community
Center at 1699 Wingfield Street just south of 12th Avenue S. Monday-
Friday 9:00am-5:00pm. Questions regarding the pick-up please contact
Nicola Bohannon at 533-7363."

Mango Groves
will not be having a regular meeting this month, but will instead be
manning the Beer Tent at Evening on the Avenue, on Friday, Dec 19th
from 5-10p, the last for 2014! If you would like to stop by, please
do so. If you are able to help out for a bit, we would appreciate the
extra effort! Happy Holidays to all!

Please
note we are still accepting nominations for elections in January for
Executive Officers and Board Members. If you would like to nominate
anyone, or yourself, please contact us!

Flagler County just approved building cottages
to promote "eco-tourism". There are some that will think it ironic
building structures in a pristine preserve to increase tourism. From
FlagerLive, here is an excerpt from the article:

Nine months after granting approval for the concept, the Flagler County Commission on Monday
gave its administration the go-ahead to start building three
air-conditioned tourism cottages at the Princess Place Preserve, along
Pellicer Creek, as the first step in a plan to build several more and
foster a new kind of eco-tourism in one of the state’s most pristine
areas. A 1988 voter referendum adding a surtax to buy environmentally
sensitive land enabled the county to buy and preserve the 1,600-acre
Princess Place preserve in perpetuity.Some commissioners were
concerned about the cottages’ footprint, location and effect on their
surroundings. Some of those details were not available Monday. But County Administrator Craig Coffey, who is driving the project, said the cottages’ impact will be limited.

Trust me, dear readers, you wouldn't want to be Panagioti Tsolkas,
Cara Jennings, or frankly anyone in EarthFirst! (EF) this week. Or for
the foreseeable future for that matter. Remember there was a time when
Randy Schultz ran the editorial board at the Palm Beach Post and Willy
Howard was the staff writer for Lake Worth. Back then, the peeps at EF
could usually count on the Post for support. Times were good most of the time. Here is a piece on Ms. Jennings from that period. Interestingly, it refers to her not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, something that she was known for. In light of the recent invocation kerfuffle, it helps put things in perspective.

However that was then and this is now. EF as you may know has protested several times
the development of the Briger Tract in Palm Beach Gardens. The Briger
Tract, with its (possible) green indigo snakes and tortoises is and always was the
distraction from the actual story: EF's effort to rid much of Scripps and the biotech
industry from here in south Florida. The Post editorial board came out strongly
in yesterday's paper and
detailed the entire story about Scripps and Briger succinctly. I
strongly encourage all my readers to read the editorial. Here are two
short excerpts:

There
are gopher tortoises, which can be relocated, and possibly — based on
the excitement of snake-sniffing dogs sent by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service — endangered Eastern indigo snakes.Hearing
the pleas of the Earth First! protesters, it’s easy to forget that
building on Briger was deemed among the most environmentally friendly of
options for the biotech city intended to be anchored by The Scripps
Research Institute.

[and...]

These
[plans by Scripps, the Kolter Group, Florida Crystals, et al.] are all
positive developments for a piece of land that’s bisected by a highway
and surrounded by malls and homes. It’s much more positive than building
a sprawling development 10 miles from everything else in the county, a
development that encroaches on the northern edge of the Everglades.Though
it’s easy to forget, it’s ultimately the compromise plan for Briger
that has managed to put the Earth — and people — first.

The
gem you'll get in the printed edition of the paper as opposed to the
online editorial is a lovely picture of EF's Lynne Purvis, Lake Worth resident and part of the tribe.

What's
lost on some, and what EF hopes to capitalize on by causing confusion,
is the Briger/Scripps story is not new by any means. The Briger/Scripps
story is old news, more than 10 years old now. EF is engaged in a form
of social media 'monkeywrenching' (misinformation and disinformation)
going so far as to accuse the Palm Beach Gardens police of abuses which
never happened. In ratcheting up the hysteria and hyperbole EF hopes to
gain support and, of course, dollars.

The Post's online edition has a link to the EF site, the EarthFirst! Journal. If you would like to help out EF you can do so by bidding on an item(s) in their auction! The auction ends today so act fast. I'm considering a bid on two items myself. Perfect timing for your holiday giving and consuming.

Ultimately,
what the Post editorial addresses is this key question: The Palm Beach
County population and business community is growing and where do we want
these people to be? West of the Turnpike or east of the Turnpike? That
is the question.

For Panagiotti Tsolkas and EF
they will not come to the table. For them the goal is simple: to get
Scripps out of Florida. Period. In their writings of late they have
taken on an angry tone and are not accepting defeat. What exactly does
that mean for the future? Only they know that and I am not expecting a
news conference by EF any time soon detailing their plans. Will EF
employ a diversity of tactics? Expect more from this group in the coming year.

One of my bi-weekly, thrice-weekly blogs to read is Walkable West Palm Beach (WWPB). It's fun to go through their archives. Recently, I read this gem on WWPB about Donald Shoup, the author of “The High Cost of Free Parking”.
You see folks, your free parking in downtown Lake Worth comes at a very
high price. Free is not free. Just because you're not paying to park
doesn't mean somebody else isn't picking up the tab. Here is the video I did last year when Dr. Shoup was in Delray Beach.

If
you're like me and know who Jeff Speck is, desire a walkable/bikeable
city, and think FDOT's 12' wide car lanes are a crime against humanity
than I would strongly suggest you go to the WWPB blog. Here's the series of videos which I took last May when Mr. Speck gave his initial report to the West Palm Beach City Commission.

Soon I hope to have Mr. Bailey as a guest on my podcast, High Noon in Lake Worth. High on my list of topics to discuss with Mr. Bailey are "one-way pairs" like our Lake Worth Lake and Lucerne Avenues.

I appreciate Mr. Bailey promoting my podcast with Mr. Minicozzi and hope our talk added positively to the debate. Be sure to visit his blog. As usual, you will discover that our two cities have more in common than we know.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Florida State Senator Jeff Clemens will speak at
the Kiwanis Club breakfast meeting on Tuesday, December 16 to give us a
legislative update and discuss issues relevant to the future of our City. All
are welcome. Too Jays. Downtown Lake Worth. 8AM. You can order coffee or
breakfast off of the regular menu.

“I think I’m a fortunate person. I think God
blessed me abundantly in ways that I can never measure, and I’ve had a
very fortunate life,” he said. “I’ve virtually bounced back from any
challenge thrown my way — Layne’s passing, my dad’s death, loss of job.
These all are things I would rather have not experienced but they are
part of life’s journey, so I don’t look at it as lucky."

Quote by Mark Foley in this week's Florida Weekly. This story about Mark Foley is a very long read and encourage everyone to read it. It's nice to be reminded during the holiday season about the power of redemption and recovery after overcoming life's challenges.

This is from where I was born and raised. The region worked together to link various trails along rivers and streams, through park land and other areas to provide a dedicated bike/pedestrian way. When I lived there and worked as a planner for the city of East Lansing, the prospect of this "River Trail" was just being talked about. Almost 30 years later, all the parts have come together in an integrated system. This video is a narrated trip through part of the trail.

It also represents a fairly professional video prepared by a local government given newly available technology.
Join Lansing's Parks Director, Brett Kaschinske and Chief Operating Officer, Chad Gamble on a little mid-day adventure as they explore the newly created South Lansing pathway extension. You will also hear various pathway and park updates from the likes of Officer Bob Merritt, Kevin Shaw and Brett Kaschinske himself.

Seems that this project is stuck in the same rut that it was before. Now, West Palm Beach is saying "come all offers" on the piece of land they were ready to see for a development project. This is perplexing County officials. And, reading the article, another stake has been placed in the heart of John Prince Park being a suitable location. The search continues! They will be talking about this at Tuesday's County Commission meeting. Click title for link.

County Mayor Shelley Vana said she opposes trading land as proposed,
but said she is willing to continue talks with the city to try to reach a
deal.
"We put everything up [that] we are going to do," Vana said. "West Palm Beach keeps giving us moving targets."
In
response to the revived proposal for a potential land swap with the
county, city officials issued a statement saying they are continuing
talks with competing developers and that the county is also welcome to
submit a proposal.
"Our position that we will not give away
taxpayer land for free to build a baseball facility remains unchanged,"
the city's statement said.

Flagler Memorial (North) Bridge
The eastbound lane will be closed on the Flagler Memorial Bridge Thursday, Dec. 18 through Tuesday morning, Dec. 23, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.,
for bridge foundation work on the southeast side of the bridge.
Flaggers will guide eastbound and westbound traffic across the bridge
alternately. Drivers should expect delays and seek alternate routes if
possible.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Click title for link to a Detroit Free Press article. Are those that turned their backs during George Will's talk "un-American"? Would Commissioner McVoy think so? From the article:

As conservative columnist George Will spoke during today's graduation
ceremony, 18 Michigan State University students — wearing green caps
and gowns — stood with their backs to him.
Several in the crowd of
thousands at MSU's Breslin Center also did the same. Others sat in
their seats, holding up newspapers and pretending to read.
It was
part of a protest surrounding inflammatory statements the Washington
Post columnist and commentator has made discrediting the severity of
college rape. Protest organizers said the university should have
canceled his appearance because of those statements.

Yesterday was the Lake Worth Holiday parade. This parade, along
with the Street Painting Festival, are one of Lake Worth's signature
events. Jodie Wagner at the Palm Beach Post wrote an excellent story
about the parade you can read here. Here is an excerpt:

More than 5,000 spectators are expected to line downtown streets Saturday for the city’s annual holiday parade.Featuring
floats, antique cars, marching bands, twirlers and other performance
groups, the 48th annual event promises plenty of family friendly fun,
said Juan Ruiz, the city’s leisure services director.“It’s
probably our biggest event that provides a community bonding opportunity
for everyone to come out and celebrate the holidays,” he said. “Parades
in Lake Worth are really popular. They love parades in our town.”

This
last Friday night, Kathleen Walter from Channel 12 came to Lake Worth to do a
news story, something altogether different than the story by Jodie
Wagner. Keep in mind the following day was the Lake Worth Holiday
parade, however Kathleen Walter was determined to do a story on the
controversial "invocation" issue in the City of Lake Worth. Remember,
the atheist invocation by Preston Smith was 12 days ago. Not exactly
what you would call "breaking news". A citizen in Deerfield Beach now
wants to do a 'satanic' invocation in Lake Worth. [Note: Not reported by
Kathleen Walter, Deerfield Beach has an invocation at their city
commission meetings. Reverend Fulmore from the Church of the Living God
gave the last invocation.]

This satanic
'invocation' could be months away, if it ever happens at all. From a
news perspective, again, this story could be broadcast any time. I spoke
with someone yesterday in the downtown who relayed their interaction with Kathleen Walter and her/his pleas for Channel 12 to do a positive
story about Lake Worth and the Holiday Parade, to no avail.

Instead Kathleen Walter reported this story on Lake Worth,
the night before the Lake Worth Holiday Parade. We understand that she was trolling for a negative point-of-view during the evening. As part of Kathleen
Walter's story she included the tree
lighting ceremony from Friday night as a backdrop and here is the screen grab:

If
you are not offended, you should be. If you are a resident of Lake
Worth (or for that matter, a resident of Palm Beach County) I would
strongly suggest you not watch Channel 12 news or communicate with
anyone at Channel 12. For residents outside the City of Lake Worth know
this: if this kind of offensive reporting could happen to our city, it
could happen to yours too.

Finally, Kathleen Walter has an impressive résumé.
She knows how to do news reporting. Why shouldn't the City of Lake
Worth get the same professional treatment she would give any other
story? The City of Lake Worth deserves better.

From Eliot Kleinberg at the West Palm Beat blog we have this about "parklets" in downtown West Palm Beach. How about this idea for downtown Lake Worth?

“Parklets” are in place again in downtown West Palm Beach.Starting Thursday
morning, local artists transformed a parking space at Rocco’s Tacos,
224 Clematis St., into a “street balcony.” It will stay there for a
month, then move to Le Rendez-vous on Datura street and then to Field of
Greens back on Clematis Street.The mini-parks started in 2005
and have become popular in cities across the country. One in Oakland
held bicycle racks and tables and chairs along with a row of planters.
One in Vancouver, B.C., was surrounded by a wire fence and held blocks
that served as benches. A San Francisco version held dining tables and
was framed by a wood fence.

Two urban planner/artists are part of the team responsible for this placement. They are Sherryl Murriente and Beju Legobart.